Lent 2023 day 32
Listening to the radio yesterday morning and Dolly Paton was singing 9 to 5. Which is always a good way to start the day! However, I was paying attention to the lyrics and was particularly struck by this:
Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn and stretch and try to come to life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OzdyxbOuU&t=22s
' pour myself a cup of ambition' 😁 what an utterly genius line. As a poet I know she is wanting to find a rhyme for the word 'kitchen'. Ambition is, in itself, a pretty clever rhyme - cant think of too many other things that would rhyme with kitchen ( apart from 'bitching 'and Dolly is far too nice to use a word like that!) Of course she could have changed the first line to avoid an awkward rhyme. But she already has the tumble/stumble thing going on which is deeply pleasing. So instead of spoiling that, she goes for pouring a cup of ambition. Rather than coffee. And instantly the song is elevated from an ordinary country warble to a classic.
As I smiled at the genius of that word 'ambition' and all it conjures up as we imagine Dolly starting her 9 to 5 day, I started thinking about the power of words. Even of one word. The word we choose in any given situation can make a huge difference. We all know the pain of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Of calling someone by the wrong name. Of feeling stupid when using the wrong term. Or even of trying to learn a foreign language and stumbling through words we know we dont really understand.
God loves words. Its no coincidence that the first thing He does is speak. Or that He is called the living Word. Or that He disrupted the mother tongue of the people in Babel into multitudes of languages - more words with more meanings and interpretations. But what I think God likes most about words is that He has designed them (and us) to be so playful and creative. I remember when my kids were really small and they were first learning to tell jokes. I had to endure hours of all 3 of them telling me unfunny jokes ( why did the chicken cross the road? Because it was a pig) until suddenly one day they understood that one word could have two meanings (which of course is the basis of nearly all joke telling). From then on I was inundated with puns and word play and jokes which were actually funny. Have you ever stopped to consider what a gift a joke is? How wonderful that we can use our common understanding of how language is supposed to work to find humour in messing about with it.
bad joke alert
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly. But when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it.
“My son had to give up his career because of fallen arches.”
“He’s an athlete?”
“No—an architect.”
Two aerials meet on a roof - fall in love - get married. The ceremony was rubbish - but the reception was brilliant.
Well, enough of that 😀 It strikes me that whilst jokes can be mildly amusing when written down it really is in the telling and hearing of them that they become funny. Which is why Im so looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face. I reckon a) He has the best sense of humour ever and b) we will understand the humour in the Bible so much better when we hear it from His mouth. I remember one time many years ago hearing a sermon about Gideon. The preacher was pointing out just how hilarious the story is and by the time he had finished telling it both he and the whole congregation were rocking with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. Humour is contagious and powerful. When was the last time you had a properly good, side splitting laugh? When was the last time you laughed in church?
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